English 

Oracy Australia Presentations

Thumb drives, design flaws in Boeing 747s, fast fashion in literature, desert roses, causes of the Chernobyl disaster, key considerations in the Menendez case, NBL’s best three players and the benefits of thrifting. 

This represents a small selection of the topics our Year Eight students prepared and presented for this year’s Oracy Day. I am always fascinated by the topics our students settle on when left to their own devices. I am also quite astounded by the standard that many of them rise to on the day. I was most impressed to note that a number of students chose to deliver without palm cards, even when this option was available to them.

Our students were presented with the challenge of creating a three-minute presentation on a topic of their choice as well as preparing a reading from a passage. While JK Rowling and Dr Seuss featured in these selections, so too did the lyrics of Taylor Swift and even classic samples of sports commentary. Once again, there is so much that comes from allowing our students greater control over the content.

Oracy is always a challenge to our students and coordinating it in a manner that makes it accessible to all is inevitably a complex affair; however, each year it is defined by the small victories. The students who didn’t think they could present but who take up the challenge, or the student who never imagined they would own the room but did so. 

All of this year’s Oracy examiners were effusive in their praise for our students, particularly for the depth of their preparation and the courtesy they showed to one and other on the day.

Mr Damien Kerrigan

HoLA English and Languages